Marijuana activist seeks release pending appeal

In papers filed late yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court, Westminster attorneys Judith S. Stainbrook and Stephen P. Bourexis are asking for a hearing to request an appeal bond for Davis.

"There is no risk of flight. The evidence in the case involves less than one ounce of marijuana and paraphernalia," the lawyers said in their motion. "There was no evidence that the defendant sold marijuana or that her release will involve any danger that she will sell marijuana to others."

If an appeal bond is set and Davis can raise the money to post it, she would be freed from the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup until an appeal in her case is heard.

Carroll Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. sentenced Davis to five years in state prison April 28 for maintaining a common nuisance, a felony drug conviction on which she was convicted by a Carroll jury in March.

The judge also imposed a concurrent, one-year sentence for possession of marijuana. He suspended all but two years of the sentence, fined her $2,500 and ordered her to serve five years of supervised probation after prison.

Assistant State's Attorney Barton F. Walker III, who prosecuted Davis, declined to comment yesterday on the appeal bond motion. He said he had not read it.

Davis, 48, owns an 80-acre farm in Silver Run and a counter-culture clothing store in Westminster.